They all gathered around the bag, looking in. It now contained two large bluefish. Gabe gave Charlie’s hair a playful ruffle but nothing could wipe the wide smile from the lad’s face.

“Gabe can show you how to cook them,” Rosie said.

Gabe looked down at the water lapping at their feet, which was now coated in a dirty scum. “Tide’s turning.”

They climbed into the kayaks and were swept along back towards the creek entrance, passing over an octopus, huge stingrays with tails as long as the kayak and reef sharks that darted after fish of every description. They even spied a distant sea turtle. Charlie’s cries of delight echoed Natalie’s pleasure. The sea life was abundant and amazing to view from where they sat, only centimetres above the water in the kayak. She was sorry when the tide eventually nudged them to the edge of the creek. Like the tide that had turned, she felt as if something inside her had changed direction. She’d forgotten her worries and lost herself in the sheer delight of observing the abundance beneath her. A sense of calm had enveloped her, something – she realised as she settled in to the back of the four-wheel drive again – she hadn’t felt in a long time.

Then on the way back they stopped at the beach and she couldn’t decide which experience was better. It was as Gabe had described, white sand stretching away in a long slow curve in either direction. The pristine beach was lapped by the Indian Ocean, which sparkled under the glare of the sun, and they had it all to themselves.

Rosie wandered the edge of the water while the two blokes and Natalie swam. Gabe and Charlie jumped and splashed, chasing each other like puppies playing. The waves were gentler than they’d been at Cable Beach and Natalie stretched out on her back and let herself float. Gabe had been right, this was beautiful country.

Later he dropped her back at her room and told her to come over to the camp kitchen when she was ready. By the time she’d showered and changed she was hungry and arrived just as he and Charlie had their heads down inspecting the fish in the coals.

“See that pink flesh there,” he was saying to Charlie. “It needs a couple more minutes.”

Rosie arrived with a potato salad and Natalie brought out her leftover ingredients to make a tossed salad. Her stomach groaned at the delicious smell of baked fish and beside her Rosie laughed. “You sound hungry, girl.”

Gabe brought the fish to the table and sat it on the large plate Rosie had set out. Natalie was offered the fish first and waited impatiently while the others served themselves then they all tucked in.

“Mmm!” she groaned happily through a mouthful. “That is divine.”

Gabe grinned. “Not bad.”